Ranji Trophy: Ashok Dinda back in Bengal squad

KOLKATA: Ashok Dinda made a comeback to the Bengal side as the pacer was named on Thursday in the 15-member squad for their Ranji Trophy opener against Kerala next week. Dinda had been ignored for the Syed Mushtaq Ali national T20 meet. There was no other major surprise as the senior selection committee under ex-Bengal player Palash Nady decided to go with tried and tested ones.
A disappointed Dinda even thought of not representing Bengal ever after being ignored for the T20 meet.He did not join the team’s pre-season practice initially. The pacer ultimately rejoined practice after a talk with Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) secretary Avishek Dalmiya. Dinda was back to his fiery best during a two-day practice match against Madhya Pradesh at the Eden Gardens where he picked up important wickets.
The selectors kept faith on out-of-form Sudip Chatterjee too who was also ignored for the Mushtaq Ali meet. The left-hander failed miserably in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (50-over) meet too. However, the team management is hopeful that a week-long session with CAB batting consultant VVS Laxman will see Chatterjee regain his old touch.
Bengal had failed to make the knockout stages of both Vijay Hazare and Mushtaq Ali tournaments this season thereby making the Ranji matches all the more important for coach Arun Lal.
The team will leave the city on Saturday with the match against Kerala beginning on Tuesday.
The squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Sudip Chatterjee (vc), Manoj Tiwary, Anushtup Majumder, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Abhishek Raman, Arnab Nandi, Ashok Dinda, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Ishan Porel, Pradipta Pramanik, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Koushik Ghosh, B Amit